Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon County students attending the 2016 Lehigh Valley DUI Highway Safety Task Force Youth conference April 22 learned how important it is to make the right choices in life.

The students heard how drugs and alcohol cost Elliot Lipsky, 23, of South Whitehall, and Donald Yesik, 26, of Slatington, their freedom,

They also learned from Cindy and Lonnie Kester, of Palmerton, how making a bad decision cost their son, Lee, his life.

Lipsky shared his story on how drugs and alcohol became a problem in his life when he was 16 as an 11th grader at Parkland High School.

Lipsky told the students drug addiction does not discriminate.

“If you take anything from me today, don’t do drugs,” he said. “If you see someone going down the same path [drug addiction], tell them what you see, talk to them, get them to rehab or drug counseling.”

Yesik said drugs and alcohol became a problem for him when he was 18, after graduating from Northern Lehigh High School.

He said drinking can be an hereditary or learned behavior.

Both Lipsky and Yesik told students how important it is for them to be around positive people who don’t drink or do drugs.

They each discussed how alcohol and drugs numbed their emotions and stress in their lives.

Cindy Kester discussed how her son became addicted to drugs after a car accident a few days after his 21st birthday.

He had “bummed” a ride home from a friend’s house.

The driver allegedly had been drinking and lost control of his speeding car.

“When you have a child, you want a better life for them than you’ve had. No one wants their child to be an alcoholic or a drug addict,” she said. “However, that doesn’t always happen.”

After the car accident, Lee was left with broken vertebrae in his upper back, lacerations, broken teeth and a bad concussion.

“The doctors said he was young. He would heal and be fine,” she said. “They sent him home with oxycodone, prescribed for the pain, along with anxiety medications.”

Over the years, Lee went to pain management doctors, physical therapists, psychiatrists, surgeons and chiropractors.

None, however, could help him find relief from the pain.

Lee then found a doctor who would prescribe Roxicodone and methadone, but one day he retired and Lee had to find another doctor, she stated.

“This new doctor started reducing the pain medication and told him he would just have to learn to live with the pain,” Cindy Kester said. “So, at the reduction of the Roxicodone, Lee found friends he could borrow pills from to help supplement what he couldn’t get from the doctor.”

Lee finally decided on rehab after he was charged with possession but he had to wait three months to be admitted.

Her son knew he needed more help after his 28 days of treatment, 21 of those spent in detox because of all the drugs in his system, she said.

After a four-month wait, Lee entered a methadone clinic where he received liquid methadone for a year-and-a-half before serving a 72-hour jail sentence.

“After jail, he was sentenced to the ARD program and a year probation which he faulted half-way through by testing positive for drugs,” Cindy Kester said.

He was then sentence to three months in jail. Lee died Sept. 3, 2015, one week after being released from jail.

Cindy Kester said they hope to keep his memory alive by advocating for changes.

“Let’s keep our families safe by getting the drugs off the streets and back into the hands for doctors and a system that can monitor their use for pain,” she stated. “In the future I would like to see drug courts established to help substance abusing offenders, giving them treatment plans right out of court instead of prison.”

She would also like to see more in-patient and out-patient treatment centers developed for mental health and substance abusers with longer recovery periods paid by insurance companies.”

“Alcohol and drugs are only a surface problem,” she stated. “Be compassionate, you don’t know what is happening in people’s lives that are making them turn to alcohol or drugs to take away the mental or physical pain that they are experiencing.”

Lonnie Kester said in all his 66 years on earth the toughest time he has ever had was saying good-bye to his son in the emergency room when he died.

He also touched on what Lipsky and Yesik said of how important it is to change your environment and have positive friends.

“Think twice before using drugs or alcohol. Sometimes there is no second chance,” he advised.

He said parents should do whatever it takes to intervene when they see their kids beginning to use drugs or alcohol.

“If we help one person from our experience it is worth it,” Lonnie Kester said.

Following the speakers, the students won door prizes prior to voting on the best student presentation videos on drugs, teenage drunk driving, distracted driving, bullying and speaking up when they see someone making the wrong choice in life.

Winning first place with a score of 6.3 for their addiction video were students from Allen High School. Second place, with a score of 5.86, went to Parkland High School students for their video “One Mistake Can Last a Lifetime.”

Coming in third place was Southern Lehigh High School students with a score of 5.83 for their personal testimonial video.